5p20sc.md (4257B)
1 We can in the same way show, that there is no emotion directly contrary 2 to this love, whereby this love can be destroyed; therefore we may conclude, 3 that this love towards God is the most constant of all the emotions, and that, 4 in so far as it is referred to the body, it cannot be destroyed, unless the body 5 be destroyed also. As to its nature, in so far as it is referred to the mind 6 only, we shall presently inquire. 7 8 I have now gone through all the remedies against the emotions, or all that the 9 mind, considered in itself alone, can do against them. Whence it appears that 10 the mind's power over the emotions consists:-— 11 12 1. In the actual knowledge of the emotions (V. iv. note). 13 14 2. In the fact that it separates the emotions from the thought of an external 15 cause, which we conceive confusedly (V. ii. and V. iv. note). 16 17 3. In the fact, that, in respect to time, the emotions referred to things, which 18 we distinctly understand, surpass those referred to what we conceive in a 19 confused and fragmentary manner (V. vii.). 20 21 4. In the number of causes whereby those modifications[17] are fostered, which 22 have regard to the common properties of things or to God (V. ix. xi.). 23 24 [17] Affectiones. Camerer reads affectus-—emotions. 25 26 5. Lastly, in the order wherein the mind can arrange and associate, one with 27 another, its own emotions (V. x. note and xii. xiii. xiv.). 28 29 But, in order that this power of the mind over the emotions 30 may be better understood, it should be specially observed that 31 the emotions are called by us strong, when we compare the emotion 32 of one man with the emotion of another, and see that one man is 33 more troubled than another by the same emotion; or when we are 34 comparing the various emotions of the same man one with another, 35 and find that he is more affected or stirred by one emotion than 36 by another. For the strength of every emotion is defined by a 37 comparison of our own power with the power of an external cause. 38 Now the power of the mind is defined by knowledge only, and its 39 infirmity or passion is defined by the privation of knowledge 40 only: it therefore follows, that that mind is most passive, 41 whose greatest part is made up of inadequate ideas, so that it 42 may be characterized more readily by its passive states than by 43 its activities: on the other hand, that mind is most active, 44 whose greatest part is made up of adequate ideas, so that, 45 although it may contain as many inadequate ideas as the former 46 mind, it may yet be more easily characterized by ideas 47 attributable to human virtue, than by ideas which tell of human 48 infirmity. Again, it must be observed, that spiritual 49 unhealthiness and misfortunes can generally be traced to 50 excessive love for something which is subject to many variations, 51 and which we can never become masters of. For no one is 52 solicitous or anxious about anything, unless he loves it; 53 neither do wrongs, suspicions, enmities, &c. arise, except in 54 regard to things whereof no one can be really master. 55 56 We may thus readily conceive the power which clear and 57 distinct knowledge, and especially that third kind of knowledge 58 (II. xlvii. note), founded on the actual knowledge of God, 59 possesses over the emotions: if it does not absolutely destroy 60 them, in so far as they are passions (V. iii. and iv. note); at 61 any rate, it causes them to occupy a very small part of the mind 62 (V. xiv.). Further, it begets a love towards a thing immutable 63 and eternal (V. xv.), whereof we may really enter into possession 64 (II. xlv.); neither can it be defiled with those faults which 65 are inherent in ordinary love; but it may grow from strength to 66 strength, and may engross the greater part of the mind, and 67 deeply penetrate it. 68 69 And now I have finished with all that concerns this present 70 life: for, as I said in the beginning of this note, I have 71 briefly described all the remedies against the emotions. And 72 this everyone may readily have seen for himself, if he has 73 attended to what is advanced in the present note, and also to the 74 definitions of the mind and its emotions, and, lastly, to 75 Propositions i. and iii. of Part III. It is now, therefore, time 76 to pass on to those matters, which appertain to the duration of 77 the mind, without relation to the body. 78 79